


Unfamiliar

by InsaneTrollLogic



Series: CW Impulse Fic [9]
Category: Impulse (Comics), The Flash (Comics), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Episode Related, Episode Remix, Episode: s03e21 Cause and Effect, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Memory Loss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-30
Updated: 2017-10-30
Packaged: 2019-01-26 12:17:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12557200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InsaneTrollLogic/pseuds/InsaneTrollLogic
Summary: An amnesiac Barry is confronted by an unfamiliar boy who shares his unfamiliar name. [AU to 3x21 Cause and Effect]





	Unfamiliar

**Author's Note:**

> Apparently I am not done playing in this verse. This episode shouted out Bart. Which, on rewatch, made me want to add Bart.

“Are you sure I don’t go by Bart?” The panic is thick in his throat even confronted with his own ID card. “Bart feels more natural to me. Can we go with Bart?

The man with long hair snorts. “Yeah, sorry Barry, that name’s taken.”

He sputters. “How many Bartholomews do you know that I can’t pick my own nickname?”

“Just two, dude,” the black kid says. “And trust me, you want the other guy to have first dibs.”

“Why?” Barry draws in on himself defensively. “Is other Bartholomew dangerous? Should I be worried?”

The black kid bites back a laugh, but everyone else seems somber, like someone has died. The blond takes a step forward like he wants to try a physical examination, but Barry backs up. The long haired man says, “Wally, it’s not funny.”

“Oh, Cisco it’s bad, but it’s still a little funny.” To Barry he adds, “Bart’s fourteen. I think you could take him.”

“Fourteen,” Barry echoes. “Right. And how old am I? And for that matter why are any of you hanging out with a fourteen year old?”

“Wait,” the woman says. Against Barry’s will he’s immediately captivated by the sound of her voice, the curve of her lips. “What time is it?”

Barry finds himself looking to his bare wrist as the older gentleman supplies, “It’s three-oh-nine.”

The room gives a collective wince. The woman says, “And Bart gets out of class at three-oh-seven. Did anyone even think to give him a heads up?”

Every turns to look at Cisco who points an exaggerated finger at his chest. “What? This was just a little snafu with our calculations.”

“ _My_ calculations were correct,” says the blond.

“How is this a snafu?” the woman shouts. “He’s got no memory at all!”

“I’m standing right here,” Barry reminds them. “Who’s Bart and why does it matter if he’s two minutes late?”

“I’m actually kind of impressed,” Wally offers. “He’s lasted _two whole minutes_.”

“Is this really the time to be joking?” Cisco says.

“I’m just saying, a year ago, he wouldn’t have made it sixty seconds.” The grin suddenly falls from Wally’s face. “Wait, you don’t think he’s been kidnapped or something do you? Do I need to suit up and start looking?”

Barry’s eyes widen. “Kidnapped?”

“Okay,” the woman says. “Wally, go check on Bart before he decides to joyride in his civvies.”

In the distance, Barry hears a whooshing sound and then something small and fast blurs into a room with accompanied by what takes Barry a second to discern as high speed chatter.

“HeyguysyouweretakingforeversoIfiguredI’drunhomeinsteadoftakethebuslikeusual.”

“Not kidnapped,” Wally observes. “That’s always a good sign.”

“DidyouseeSavitaragain?” the tiny blur asks. “BecauseIcanhelp,dad.YouknowIcanhelp.”

The blur stops for a brief second to look up at Barry and then it’s not a blur, it’s a _kid._ If not for the conversation earlier, Barry never would have pegged him for a teenager. He’s five foot tall at most with a slight frame, a mop of brown hair and eyes that look almost gold in the light. He looks at Barry, imploring. “Imadeitbackallbymyself. Idon’tneedababysitter. Icanhelpifyou’llletme.”

Barry pauses a beat as he parses the speech, licks his lips and says, “I’m guessing you’re Bart.”

Bart’s eyes narrow. “Cisco! Julian!” he shouts, his voice slowing to something more easily understandable. “What did you do to him? Did you break him? Aunt Iris, did you let them break him?”

“I wouldn’t mind an answer to that either,” Barry says. “Any maybe a primer on who you guys are. Preferably in writing.”

Bart whirls back around, his lip trembling. “Dad?”

Barry takes a step back.

It’s Wally who steps between them, putting an arm over the kid (Barry’s son? How could he not know he had a son?), fixing Barry with a glare as he walks out of the room.

Barry’s anxiety spikes as the glare is echoed through three other faces. “What?”

“Bart’s had it rough,” the older man says to him. “Maybe as rough as you did when I took you in.”

The words don’t resonate. Barry clenches and unclenches his fists. “Okay, I think one of you needs to explain a whole bunch of what just happened to me.”

* * *

He asks for space when they’re done talking and most of the strangers listen, filing out of the room so Barry can sit with his head in his hand. It’s the detective, his adoptive father Joe West (if the new information is to be trusted), who lingers. “Be careful with him.”

“With who?” Barry says. His mind is buzzing with thoughts of speedsters and supervillains and scientists who gave him _amnesia_.

“Bart,” Joe replies like it’s should have been obvious, like it should be the first thing on his mind (and he’s probably right). “He’s a tough kid, but family’s a touchy subject. I don’t think he’s ever quite felt like he’s fit in. Except…” Joe puts a hand on his shoulder. “When he’s running with you.”

Barry sits in silence for a minute after his leaves. He scratches his head. He taps his foot on the ground. The silence is oppressive after so much chaos and he still doesn’t remember a thing about his real life.

But apparently the other Barry has friends, has a dad, has a _kid._

He feels like he’s betraying them all somehow even as he knocks on the door to the speed lab and watches Bart’s head perk up from a stack of books. His face falls when he takes in the expression on Barry’s face. “Hey, Barry.”

 _Barry._ It had been dad earlier. He has some relief at the loss of the title, but it’s followed by a wave of guilt for feeling relief. “Hey, Bart,” he says.

“You didn’t remember, did you?” Bart asks.

“No.” Barry sits down carefully at the seat next to him. “But Cisco and Joe explained some things.”

That Savitar has been threatening his family. That he’d had a glimpse of the future in which the boy in front of him died bloody, that he’d been willing to sacrifice his memory to make sure things turned out different.

That he had.

Bart blows the bangs out of his eyes, a quick irritated puff of air.

Reportedly Bart still doesn’t know Savitar was targeting him.

“Joe said I adopted you.”

“Yeah,” Bart replies. “A couple years ago. After you found me.”

“I managed to adopt the only other person on the planet named Bartholomew Henry Allen.”

Bart grimaces. “That’s right.”

He appreciates the need to abridge, but a lack of memories doesn’t make him stupid. “You look just like me.”

The pencil in Bart’s hand breaks. “Wallysaidtheyweregoingtoexplainit! Thatyouwouldgetbetter!”

“Hold on, kid, slow down.”

For some reason the chastisement makes the kid’s face light up and Barry suddenly has an armful of gangly fourteen year old. “Dad! You remember.”

Barry’s gut twists. “No. Not yet.”

Bart untangles himself as fast as the hug had appeared, betrayal on his features. “You always tell me to slow down. If you didn’t remember, you wouldn’t. How could you forget me?”

He has the same question. If Cisco is to be trusted, he was willing to let people mess with his memories if it meant keeping this boy safe. And looking at him now--this unfamiliar boy who shares his unfamiliar name--he doesn’t feel that fear. He feels nothing but the same distant fondness that most people have for children and a gnawing panic in his stomach.

In a lot of ways, that’s worse.

“I don’t know,” he says.

Bart nods curtly. He looks like he’s trying to keep a straight face, but there’s a tremor in his lips. “Will you remember again?”

“Cisco says he’s working on it.”

“That’s not a yes,” Bart counters.

“You noticed that too, huh?” Barry sits next to the kid’s pile of book. He’d been expecting schoolwork, something he might be able to help with and put the kid at ease.

Instead he finds a stack of textbooks about memory loss.

Bart follows his gaze, hugging himself defensively. “What if you never remember?”

 _Be careful with him_ , Joe whispers in his mind.

“Then we make new memories,” Barry said and he thinks, just maybe, he got this right.

* * *

[Later]

His memories are back and Bart isn’t speaking with him.

“He took this thing hard,” Wally says. “And he won’t say it, but the thing with the fire messed him up a little.”

“I can’t believe you let him go.”

“Hey, you try to catch Impulse when your speed is gone.”

“That’s a fair point.” He puts his head in his hands. “I’m a terrible father. I didn’t even think about him when I was suited up. I was so excited to have all these powers, so excited to help, that it didn’t even seem weird that some kid beat me to the scene.”

“For what it’s worth, he did a good job,” Wally says. “Barely even need Kid Flash to show up with Flash and Impulse on the job.”

Barry clamps a hand on his shoulder. “I’m glad you were there, Wally. Honestly, I have no idea how Bart would have taken this without you. But do me a favor, and stop calling him Impulse.”

“He’s going to keep going out there no matter what you do. Kids do stupid stuff like that. I can’t imagine how much worse I would have been with super speed. We’re lucky he’s trying to help. And when he went out yesterday, he had way more experience than you did. You should tell him about Savitar. He can handle it.”

Tell him that Savitar was a twisted time remnant of Barry who seemed fated to kill his own son. “When we deal with Savitar, maybe we can start bringing him up to speed. But Savitar’s too…”

“Dangerous?” Wally cuts in. “You saw a future where he kills Bart, how can it get more dangerous?”

“Personal,” Barry finishes. “Savitar’s a twisted version of _me_. I don’t want Bart to ever face a version of me that wants to kill him.”

“He’ll understand it’s not you. Just like the rest of us did.”

“That’s the thing,” Barry says. “He shouldn’t have to.”

* * *

The door to Bart’s room slams shut an instant after they get through the front door. Barry winces at the sound and follows anyway, knocking lightly.

Bart doesn’t reply. When Bart was truly angry there was shouting. Silence meant something different. Silence meant fear. He put his hand on the doorknob, but stopped himself from trying to open the room. They’d had more than one talk about privacy and Bart’s tendency to phase through walls unannounced. Barry’s still desperately trying to have the kind of households where doors are respected.

So he lets go of the doorknob and sinks down to the floor. He leans his head back against the door and says, “You scared the crap out of me today. I didn’t even know who you were and when I saw you run into that building, it was still the worst moment of my life. You could have died.”

Behind him, the door shifts and Bart edges his way out. Barry cranes his head up to look at him. “Yourunintofiresallthetime.”

“But I didn’t start with ones this big. And don’t think I missed you taking Impulse for a spin.”

“Idon’tknowwhyIcan’thelp.” He sat down on the floor next to Barry, leaning a head against his shoulder.

“Is it really so bad that your dad wants you safe?”

“ _Yes_.”

Barry laughs and ruffles his hair. “Let me deal with Savitar, okay, kid? Then maybe we can talk about getting you into the speed lab for some training.”

Bart’s eyes light up. “Really?”

“Depends on if you’re still mad at me,” Barry teases. “I know it sucked that I forgot you, but I forgot everyone. If something permanent ever happens to me, you still won’t be alone. Joe, Iris, Wally, Cisco, they’re your family. They wouldn’t leave you. I promise.”

“Nothing’s going to happen to you,” Bart says slowly, as if he wanted the impact of every word to fall.

“Not if I can help it,” Barry says, unwilling to promise it outright. “So there’s no reason for you to get mad at that.”

Bart’s face pinches. “That’snotwhyI’mmad.”

“Then tell me why.” Barry tries to keep his voice light. “You know us speedsters. Not big on patience.”

“Irismadeyouremember,” Bart says.

And just like that Barry knows where this is going. “Bart…”

“Irismadeyouremember andIdidn’t.” Bart’s biting his lips, his breath hitching every few words. “Whywasn’tI goodenough?”

Bart shifts his arm so that he can pull Bart into a hug. “Bart, it wasn’t like that. It was a matter of electrical stimulation. I physically couldn’t form connections to long term memories before Cisco and Caitlin gave me the jump start.”

“I could hear you on the coms.”

Barry feels a spike of annoyance. Coms in the Impulse costume. Christ. He knew Cisco had worked on the suit--despite Barry forbidding its use--but he’d promised it was just the addition of a GPS. But that’s a different fire to put out. “It wasn’t Iris.”

“I heard it!”

“Cisco said that after removing the physical barrier, I needed some kind of jolt. Something visceral.”

“And Iris talked about when your mom was murdered.”

“That wasn’t what did it.” He pulls back far enough to look Bart in the eyes. “Kid, I didn’t snap out of it until I realized you ran into that building alone.”

“Really?” Bart asks.

“You’re my kid,” Barry replies. “You’ll always be the thing that panics me most.”

Bart puffs out his chest. “Ihadithandled.”

Barry ruffles his hair. “I know you did, buddy. But it never hurts to have some help.”


End file.
